United Sights and Sounds

*Unless they meet the Red Bulls in the playoffs, D.C. United is done -- I said, "Done!" -- with Giants Stadium after 14 seasons, 25 league meetings and three postseason visits. (United actually fared well there, going 12-10-3 in the regular season and 2-1 in the playoffs, the loss coming in a shootout in 1996.) As you know, New York will move into a 25,000-seater on the banks of the Passaic next year, and with United making just one regular season trip to the Great Bull Swamp this season, D.C. has no additional plans to use Exit 17W. Even if New York were to advance in the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, set up a meeting with United and win hosting rights, the game would not be played at Giants Stadium.

After Sunday's match, Chris Pontius and Ben Olsen were limping around the locker room, victims of an artificial turf that is harder than a week-old scone. Said Santino Quaranta, of the hard surface and the searing heat: "It was so hot on that turf, underneath my shoes, my feet were just burning. It was pretty awful."

*Red Bulls star Juan Pablo Angel, on the late collapse: "There is no excuse, no explanation of what happened. I have no words to describe it. What happened is just unacceptable ... an embarrassing performance."

*Maybe a United-Real Madrid announcement next week? The ball, so to speak, is in Madrid's court. The other MLS team that might host Real during the two-game visit: Perhaps Toronto.

What are the alternatives? Randalls Island? -- the place where Pele played his first and as he announced after a shower, his "last" game for the Cosmos. His feet were covered by what he thought was a green fungus. It was the paint used to make the field green.

I imagined that Rutgers is the first choice. Tell me again why they're called the NEW YORK Red Bulls? You'd think they might use the Open Cup to market to New Yorkers, not head even deeper into New Jersey.

@charismaman: Are you the only person who was thinking the same thing I was? I wanted to joke earlier about Emilio's touch vs Tino's on the chips... It's the shoes man! I really loved Emilio's interview on behind the badge... it's not in english, but he's so much more talkative. Not to hard to get.